Best Compliments to Hear as a Small Business Owner

Getting a compliment from your customers can make all of the hard work it takes to run a small business completely worth it. Positive feedback is an indication that you’re getting something right and high customer satisfaction scores lead to loyal customers.  

Here are some of the best compliments you can hope to receive as a small business owner with specific business advice on how to be on the receiving end of the praise. 

 Business Advice: Best compliments to hear from customers

“Thank you so much for teaching me…”

Companies that focus on educating customers on their products and how to use them have a unique competitive edge. Instead of trying to aggressively sell products or services to your customers, consider asking them more about problems they need help with.

Teaching your customers will help your business succeed in numerous ways:

• • Your customers will feel like you’re giving their specific needs special attention.
• • Your business brand will be seen as an expert in your particular industry.
• • You’ll make the research phase for your potential customers less time consuming.
• • You’ll learn more about what your customers want by tracking what they read.

You can teach your customers one on one as they need help by including a 1-800 customer service number on your website. Or, you can also publish useful and informative articles on your blogs to encourage your customers to keep coming back for more.   

“You make it so easy to buy from you.”

On average, 68.63% of users abandon an online shopping cart before they’ve completed their transaction. So when a customer pays the compliment of being “user-friendly,” your small business is doing fantastic.

So why does a person on your eCommerce website abandon their shopping cart anyway? Business2Community shares the top 11 reasons your customers are changing their minds before hitting the checkout button. Experts say they’re leaving cause you’re not:

1. 1.) Breaking the checkout process into bite-sized steps;
2. 2.) Capturing the intent;
3. 3.) Making check out painlessly simple;
4. 4.) Offering enough incentive;
5. 5.) Offering a great mobile checkout experience;
6. 6.) Pointing out the exits;
7. 7.) Correctly explaining promo code terms;
8. 8.) Offering free shipping;
9. 9.) Looking trustworthy;
10. 10.) Reducing friction to overcome buyer remorse;
11. 11.) Implementing a live chat.

The majority of the most popular shopping cart abandonment reasons surround the difficulty of completing a purchase. Make your website as simple as possible to navigate. Allow your users to chat live with customer experts.

To get an even better conversion rate, offer a live person to assist your customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In a recent study that compared nearly identical websites (one site had a telephone number and the other omitted a number), we learned that phone numbers are important to eCommerce businesses too.  

At the conclusion of the testing, “The outcome was clearly in favor of providing the trust factor and legitimacy that a business telephone number brings to your establishment. The overall difference was that businesses that had their telephone number on their website received, on average, 10% more conversions than those websites that eliminated the business telephone number.”

“I’m so grateful for your easy exchange policy.”

Whether you have a favorable refund policy or make it easy for customers to exchange products, this compliment means you put customers first. No customer wants to feel duped, tricked or cheated. If you don’t have a good return policy in place, any disgruntled customer is going to boycott your business and share their experience with others.   

Consumer psychologist, Kit Yarrow, shares, “I often interview consumers about their shopping experiences… They feel the retailer-customer relationship is just that—a genuine, personal relationship—and that a violation of trust via a bad return experience can ruin this relationship forever.”

Work on presenting your product or service in the most honest light possible. Don’t try to trick your consumers with flashy, heavily edited photos or exaggerated value points. All these marketing tactics will just build up your customer’s expectations that will quickly fall once they receive their purchase.

So next time a customer requests to exchange or return their purchase, try to consider how much business you’re going to lose if you deny a simple request. At the same time, be on the lookout for #returnaholics by tracking your product returns.

“You seem to know everything about…”

If your car makes a funny noise, you call a mechanic you trust. When you feel sick, you make an appointment with a qualified doctor. Being an expert in your industry gives your small business an attractive unique selling proposition (USP).

When your customers compliment you on your extensive knowledge, you’re headed on the right track to building your reputation and brand. When you become known as the go-to person in your community for a specific topic, you gain immense exposure and access to your ideal audience. 

In Entrepreneur’s useful article, 7 Steps to Becoming an Expert in Your Field, you’ll learn the following milestones to conquer:

1. 1.) Become an advocate and educator for your customers.
2. 2.) Micro-specialize.
3. 3.) Write articles for news sites and profession publications.
4. 4.) Write a book using problem-solution format.
5. 5.) Start speaking.
6. 6.) Get interviewed on radio shows and podcast.
7. 7.) Use trust triggers.

“Wow, I can’t believe you answered the phone.”

Being available to your customers all day, every day is a sign of excellent customer service. You’re showing your leads and current customers that they’re important enough to speak with a live agent at their convenience. 

You don’t know when your next big and influential customer is going to call. You don’t know if an angry caller is going to try and reach you at 6pm on a Friday. As a small business owner, you can’t afford to send calls to voicemails.   

Having a live answering service doesn’t have to cost your business a fortune. Our virtual receptionists are available for as low as $20 a month. Some of our plans include per call rates as little as $0.45. Basically, you can earn this compliment easily.

Know that when you offer assistance to your calling customers, at their convenience, you’re:

• • Able to take orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
• • Able to delight customers with constant access and answers to their FAQs.
• • Able to give immediate attention to important calls.

Need another reason to be available to your calling customers? 67% of customers hang up on a phone connection out of frustration they could not talk to a real person and 75% of customers believe it takes too long to reach a live agent.

“I am so happy with my purchase.”

Of course, the number one compliment you want to hear as a small business owner is that your customer is happy and satisfied with their purchase. You opened your company to fulfill a specific need or want of consumers. When you meet (or better yet, exceed) your customers’ expectations, you have a great business that will succeed. 

Here are some insightful customer satisfaction statistics to keep you on your toes:

• • 50% use a company more frequently after a positive customer experience.
• • 86% are willing to pay up to 25% more for a better customer experience.
• • 54% of customers share bad experiences with 5+ people.
• • 87% of customers share good experiences with others.
• • A 10% increase in customer satisfaction score results in a 12% increase in trust from customers.

We hope our business advice is helpful! 

The best business advice we could possibly offer is to focus on delivering an amazing experience for each and every customer. With extremely competitive and highly saturated markets, remember that your customers are choosing to give you their business. They can easily take their money to your competitors so show them why you’re the best.